Coming into savage with no melds.

[Taika]

OS1-OS3 is very casual raid content, and with current item levels it's not required to have materia since beating enrage timers is not an issue in any way. People are also running the content on alts and may not want to fully meld several jobs. I would expect melds in OS4 and Ultimate at this point, but for anything else I don't care (I do meld my own gear for the jobs I use, but have been running OS1-OS3 and Shinryu ex without melds too when just testing how it feels to raid on particular job).

[Neophyte]

I don't get that either. Since they added the possibilty do get them back I started to meld even leveling classes with 4s and 5s (except maybe DH because of costs).
Esp. on tanks those STR-melds on right side are worth a lot.

"Aren't necessary anymore.".... what?
Melds were never necessary, except on first week prog to get first server clears (+Ultimate)
But does the availability and difficulty to get a good melded euqip reflect this? No, it is easy and cheap as hell and sure not intended to be used only by the most hardcore players.

Also both is also true for gear >320. It's also not necessary. Not wanting to meld (though you're raiding) is like not upgrading your gear on purpose (because "it's not needed, I cleared already with less").

[Taika]

Melds were never necessary, except on first week prog to get first server clears (+Ultimate)
But does the availability and difficulty to get a good melded euqip reflect this? No, it is easy and cheap as hell and sure not intended to be used only by the most hardcore players.

I do think the expectations should be based on the difficulty of content. You don't expect people to get melds or food or pots for expert dungeons or Rabanastre either.

[Nezerius]

OS1-OS3 is very casual raid content, and with current item levels it's not required to have materia since beating enrage timers is not an issue in any way.

While it might not be required, it's pretty lazy not to at least meld some grade V materia, since those are only like 5k each anyway.

Doesn't give as much of a stat boost as VI does, but it's still better than nothing.

[Taika]

While it might not be required, it's pretty lazy not to at least meld some grade V materia, since those are only like 5k each anyway.

Doesn't give as much of a stat boost as VI does, but it's still better than nothing.

Yeah, I don't want to give the wrong impression, I definitely think that if a person is interested in regularly doing content such as Savage, extremes and Ultimate, they have absolutely no reason not to try to get as good gear as they can, including melds, for their main job at least. But, at the same time, this raid tier is aimed for casual players who are maybe just trying it once or occasionally clearing the floors when they feel like it, and this is also the developers' intention. So I think this should be taken into consideration when setting expectations for the people you randomly encounter in this content.